Monday, October 26, 2015

We're celebrating our own 10th business anniversary with a fresh new website. Check out http://corporatehistory.net on smartphone, tablet, or good old desktop and tell us what you think. Kudos to our intrepid web designers at cdeVision in Holyoke, MA -- Bill and Antonio, you're the best.

Monday, October 19, 2015

History faces tough competition on the Net: when was the
last time you shared a website timeline? Before we talk about the details of General Electric’s timeline,
let’s note that not only were we intrigued enough to look through each of the
12 pages of the timeline (starting with 1878), but we spotted two items so
irresistible that one of our writers shared them on Facebook.

What makes General Electric’s web timeline so great? Let’s
look at it in terms of the questions and guidelines in our first post on this
topic.

1. Audience(s).
The timeline is focused on GE’s spectacular achievements across a wide range of
fields, over more than a century. There’s no mention of mergers and
acquisitions, but after reading a few pages, we were sorry we hadn’t invested in
its stock a century or so ago.

2-3. Major events and
structure. If you want a quick overview of the company history, the leading
paragraphs of the 12 segments combine to form a coherent story. The breaks in
the timeline are irregular (1878-1904, 1905-1912, etc.) - presumably so that
major events can be featured in the segment’s leading paragraph.

For those who want more information, the second section -- below
the leading paragraph on each page -- offers a series of 8 or more major events
in a slideshow of a very superior sort. Each major event has a well-chosen
photo and a brief description of the event and its importance. (See #4 below.) The
navigation bar beneath each event (with simple, obvious left and right arrows)
summarizes this major event in a few words, and
states how many events are in this particular sequence. Someone at GE knows how
to work with short attention spans!

4. Context. The text
for each major event puts corporate history in the wider historical context. For
example, from 1913:
“GE develops the hot-cathode, high
vacuum X-ray tube. By replacing the cold aluminum cathode with the hot tungsten
filament in a high vacuum, the company could provide tubes with better control
and greater output than had ever been achieved. The development greatly
facilitates the use of X-rays for diagnosis and treatment.”

5. Images. The
leading paragraph on every page has an image, and so does every single major
event. The images are large enough to see, but small enough to flip through
easily: a tricky balance to achieve.

Below the leading paragraph and the major events is a
wonderful third section: a series of GE advertisements from the period. As a
brief history of advertising styles these are great fun. But even better: every
single one shows how cutting-edge GE’s products were and still are. (1939: “General Electric
Television Receivers! Thrilling reception of exciting events as they happen!”)

6-7. Layout and
navigation. The three-part layout for each page of the timeline is easy to
grasp: leading paragraph, series of major events, sample GE advertisements.

The layout is the sole point where the GE website timeline
has a flaw. The header image is a photo of Thomas Edison, with links to his
bio, GE’s research, and GE’s past leaders. On a laptop, this header is so large
that it takes up all the above-the-fold screen real estate. We assumed this was
due to the fact that the page was designed to be mobile-friendly ... but then we
discovered that on a smartphone, too, the header image is so large that the tabs
and leading paragraph are pushed to the next screen.

This would barely matter, if it didn’t discourage visitors
from finding the excellent content below the header image. Fortunately there’s an
easy fix: make the header shorter top to bottom (much wider than its height).

But that’s a minor quibble. Overall, GE provides a great
example of a website timeline done right.

Pepsi’s
timeline is a single series of dates and events, with the most recent date
at the top. A tab option at the top allows readers to skip from decade to
decade.

Kudos to Pepsi’s designer for the layout, which is simple
and elegant. The font for the years is easy to read, and a vertical line
indicates the direction of the time flow. More kudos for the well-chosen and
plentiful images. Of the 70 or so entries, 28 have illustrations.

Unfortunately, the text of the entries is subpar. We have no
clue which of the 70-odd events are most important in Pepsi’s corporate history.
For example, the inauguration of the first Pepsi-Cola operation in China (1982)
is immediately followed by Frito-Lay’s introduction of Tostitos (1981). Given
this mix of topics, we don’t even know whether the timeline is aimed at
consumers or potential investors.

But much worse comes (or doesn’t) at the end of the
timeline. Pepsi was founded in the 1890s, but the company history from then
until 1966 is summarized in one very
short paragraph. Most of that paragraph consists of names of CEOs, rather than
storytelling. There’s not a single image. What a waste of a great history! If
people have been loving your product for over a century, why not flaunt that
fact with vintage ads, logos, and photos?

Next week, we’ll see how another major corporation handled
its website timeline. (Hint: much better!)

Monday, October 5, 2015

Like a well-written corporate history,
a well-written website timeline can be a great marketing tool: it can set your
organization apart from its competitors, let you brag a little, and tell your
story in a way that makes your company memorable. In decades of writing
corporate histories, we’ve created dozens of timelines and looked at hundreds
more. (For some examples, see our blog posts tagged with “web
timelines.”) In the next two weeks, we’ll look at the website timelines for
two corporations that have more than enough resources to make wonderfully
effective timelines ... But did they?

Here’s CorporateHistory.net’s series of questions and
guidelines for writing a great website timeline.

1. Consider your audience(s).
Will your readers be your clients or possible investors? In other words: will
they be more interested in your products, or in your mergers and acquisitions
history? Consider separate timelines, if appropriate.

2. Use major events
as centerpieces. Given your target audience, what are the six to eight
major events in your company history? Make sure these don’t get lost in a
barrage of less important data.

3. Build story into
the structure. Given that website visitors have notoriously short attention
spans, can you make your timeline a connected story? A series of problems and
solutions? A brief history of a niche subject, with your company in a starring
role? A humorous escapade, like Kentucky
Fried Chicken’s timeline narrated by Colonel Sanders?

4. Layer in larger
timelines—maybe. Do you want to keep readers laser-focused on your company,
or will you set your company’s achievements in the wider framework of science,
business, politics, or pop culture? Will your framework be your company, your
community or industry, the United States, or the world?

5. Add images and
captions. What will you use for visuals: current or archival photos, logos,
advertisements? Any item with an image will get more attention than an item
with only text. Captions will get more attention than text. Choose your visuals
and captions accordingly.

6. Strategize the
structure. Will you have one long timeline, or split it into or sections?
If sections, what are the best divisions? Decades are easy and obvious, but if
your major achievements came in 1932, 1939, 1955, and 1959, consider breaking
the timeline in a way that gives those dates get more attention. Don’t forget
to mark business anniversaries!

7. Make navigation
easy. Is the layout easy to understand? (In July, we commented
on Boeing’s
bafflingly complex timeline.) If you’re using tabs for sections of the
timeline, can readers see that option on both laptop and mobile screens?

Next week, we’ll analyze how one major corporation handled
its website timeline.

CorporateHistory.net can help you turn your company history into an effective and beautiful book, DVD, Web site, keynote speech, or campaign. Whether you want to celebrate a company anniversary, honor a retiring CEO, or strategize your corporate storytelling, CorporateHistory.net can help. We believe organizations suffer when their memory erodes, just as people do. Your institutional memory is a stranded asset until you put it to work. Then it becomes a powerful, cost-effective tool for marketing, community relations, and employee pride.Please visit our website:http://www.corporatehistory.net/